Weapon Keeps man safe in attempted carjacking

This is a discussion on Weapon Keeps man safe in attempted carjacking within the In the News: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly forums, part of the The Back Porch category; I am amazed that the media is reporting this!
This was in the news in Salt Lake City this morning:
Weapon Keeps Man Safe in ...

Weapon Keeps man safe in attempted carjacking

A Salt Lake City man says his gun saved his life today when a man threatened to take his car. It's a story that adds fuel to the debate over Utah's concealed weapons law.

The suspect in this case has not been caught-yet. It's probably fair to say he'll think twice before ever threatening to steal someone's car again.

Even when running errands, just like he was doing this morning, Mike Taylor is on guard.

Mike Taylor, Concealed Weapon Carrier: "The police have their hands full with everything and I don't think they could be every place at once."

So Taylor was ready when, he says, a man threatened to steal his car.

Mike Taylor: "Finally he told me he was going to kill me and take my car for himself. At that point I felt like he was going to kill me and I feared for my life so I drew my firearm and called police."

He never fired a shot. Clark Aposhian, Bureau of Criminal Identification Chairman says that is what usually happens.

Clark Aposhian, Chairman BCI Board: "We have not seen any type of pattern of abuse or escalation of these types of robberies. We haven't seen blood in the street that a lot of my adversaries or detractors would talk about."

Maura Carabello, Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah: "They could injure themselves, often not well equipped psychologically; they often don't know how to shoot or handle a weapon with proficiency."

She says what happened to Taylor is the best possible outcome, but not always the norm.

Maura Carabello: "My reaction in general, though, is we are lucky. We are lucky the permit holder is safe."

Taylor says he has carried the permit for six years; he didn't think he'd need to use it this morning.

I think you can thank officer Joe Cyr for the positive spin that was put on this incident. Joe quite often acts as the Salt Lake Police Department’s liaison with the media.

I spoke with him on the phone before this story was aired, and he was quite concerned about the incident being reported fairly. Joe commented on air that Mr. Taylor acted appropriately and in a responsible manner.

We’re fortunate to have someone like him working with the media on these kinds of reports.

I love it. According to Carabello, we're lucky over and over again, thousands upon thousands of times! Wow, we should all go to Las Vegas!

The definition of stupid is saying that the thing that happens MOST often in a given situation is LUCK each time it happens. Every time I drop my Superball onto a hard floor, it bounces back up at me: must be LUCK.

I also differ about the "best possible outcome" thing. I feel that the best possible outcome would have been a dead robber and a vindicated would-be victim. As it stands, the non-dead robber is still out there, probably still looking to victimize innocents. But the fact that Carabello does not recognize this makes her even more clearly an idiot.

Where on earth does she get the idea that "they often don't know how to shoot or handle a weapon with proficiency"? Does she honestly believe that it's common for people to spend hundreds of dollars for each gun they acquire and not learn how to shoot or handle a weapon?

I'm surprised that Maura didn't mention something about how glad she is that the perp was safe and sound. These people are being made to look worse and worse every day. And what is this about how CCW'ers often aren't good shots or psychologically prepared? I wonder if she has similar things to say about police officers, who often are not as "into" firearms as we are.....?

[/rant]
I'm glad Mr. Taylor survived the day. Especially so without a shot fired. Amazing scenario. Chalk one up for our side.

Maura Carabello, with the Gun Violence Prevention Center, believes Utah's permit laws are lax. "They could injure themselves, often not well equipped psychologically; they often don't know how to shoot or handle a weapon with proficiency."

"Gun Violence Prevention Center," hm? Violence prevention is exactly what this gun achieved for the citizen, in this situation. The GPVC's stated mission includes a push to limit where concealed carry may be done.

Sure as sunshine, limitations would simply create more situations where honorable citizens (such as the guy in this story) cannot defend themselves. "Gun violence" prevention? The focus, of course, should be "criminal perpetrator violence" prevention ... which is what we've got with broad-based concealed carry by trained citizens. Such efforts merely weaken this. (Preachin' to the choir.)

Ya know I might just look into getting one of those little dudes, I kinda always thought that if you pulled on of those, I would be looked as "well big guy whatcha gonna do with that lil thing,,, HAHAHAH" Never shot one held one at shop and didt really like it but you bet i'm gonna give em a second look.

As far as this whole Gun Violence Prevention Groups go I kinda think they're a lil goofey IMHO, Sometimes it seems like they are more of a Criminal Advocate oppsed to a Victim Advocate. Although they make wonderful Victim Advocates when its the Criminal that becomes the victim. Kinda makes you wonder if they would change their stand point on firearms if someone near and dear to them became a victim from some goofball trying to steal their vehicle or rob them for what ever habit the offender had???